The Dodo Archive

Orca Call Recordings Could Drive Away Sharks, Save Lives

A team of researchers wants to use the longest recording of orca whales ever taken in the wild to prevent shark attacks in Australia. The researchers, David Riggs and his team, took three hours of marine mammal audio, including an hour of killer whale calls, with an underwater microphone in a small area of the Southern Ocean where whales congregate every summer.

"There are a whole heap of different behaviors that have been recorded and now the challenge is to work out what mood the killer whales were in at the time," Mr Riggs said.

Now, The West Australian reports, Riggs and his team hope to collaborate with the Department Of Fisheries Western Australia to broadcast orca whale audio in areas of high-shark traffic, going off the hypothesis that sharks would be deterred by the sounds, for fear of being eaten by an orca.

The news is especially hopeful in the area, where the controversial shark cull is being used as the main method to deter sharks from popular beaches. Scientists, divers, surfers and activists have all called the cull, which involves catching sharks on bait lines and shooting the larger ones, inhumane, unscientific and ineffective.